117-3-549
Experts do not predict another famine. But swathes of the population are struggling. The chief coping mechanisms are the informal markets and trading networks that sprang up to cope with the famine and the breakdown of the state food-distribution system. Private markets provide perhaps half of the calories North Koreans consume, and four-fifths of household income.
The black markets are a response to state failure. Yet since 2005 the regime has cracked down on them. A groundbreaking report* this month for the East-West Centre in Hawaii, by Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland, emphasises the central role the penal system has played in this. There are now many more labour camps for lower-level offences, including black-market activity, petty theft and even wandering the country in search of food. The new camps, with sentences typically under two years, have been grafted on to a system of longer-term penitentiaries. The most notorious of these are the concentration camps for "political" criminals. It is known that the state ranks the population by its loyalty to the dictator, Kim Jong Il, and about half are "wavering". Some 150,000-200,000 political criminals (including whole families branded as counter-revolutionaries) are reckoned to be incarcerated in five huge camps. Many do not come out alive.

A. 어휘
expert 전문가. famine 기근. swathes of 많은. swathe=swath 풀을 한번 벤 분량.
cope 다투다, 잘 대처하다. coping mechanisms 대처방법.
breakdown 崩壞(붕괴), 고장, 파손. distribution 分配(분배).
four-fifths 5분의 4. response 반응. regime 정권.
crack down 통렬한 타격을 가하다, 엄한 조치를 취하다.
groundbreaking 시작하는. ground-breaking 착공. emphasise 강조하다.
the penal system 형벌기관(제도). labour camps 강제노동 수용소.
offence 위반, 죄. petty theft 사소한 절도. wander 돌아다니다.
sentence 宣告(선고), 판결, 형벌. graft on 接木(접목)하다.
penitentiaries 교도소. notorious 악명 높은. concentration camp 집단수용소.
criminal 범죄자. rank 평가하다, 분류하다, 정렬하다.
loyalty 충성심. wavering 동요하는. brand 烙印(낙인)하다.
counter-revolutionaries 반혁명분자. reckon 평가하다, 계산하다.
incarcerate 감금하다, 투옥하다.

117-4-550
Strikingly, former inmates of the lowest-level camps report witnessing as much brutality and deprivation as do those in the long-term camps, and sometimes more. Every one of those surveyed had witnessed forced starvation three-quarters had seen executions and half had seen death from torture or beatings. Arrest and sentencing are arbitrary. That helps maintain the regime, and, guess Mr Haggard and Mr Noland, gives those who run the penal system a tool for extortion. Market traders will pay bribes to be left alone. From nuclear top to black-market bottom, the state is one giant protection racket.

Make North Korea virtuous. But not yet
At some point the West will need to address its shame of not facing up to the abuse sooner and more viscerally. In the meantime President Barack Obama hardly sent the right message by taking eight months to appoint his special representative for human rights in North Korea. Still, the question is what to do about the place. Regime change is out of the question. Moreover, China, which has the greatest leverage over its neighbour, prizes the regime's stability above even denuclearisation. South Korea officially espouses unification, but most citizens see the North as not just another country but another planet, one best left in its orbit.
Some of the techniques that helped undermine the Soviet Union could help in North Korea. More could be spent on radio broadcasts that offer another reality to the state-manufactured one. Loyalty to the regime could be undermined in subtler ways, such as offering apparatchiks and the elite education abroad. But the grim reality is that the nuclear dance preoccupies American chiefs, precluding an overdue appraisal of the horrors the North Korean state metes out to its people.

A. 어휘
strikingly 놀랍게도. inmate 收容者(수용자), 受刑者(수형자).
witness 목격하다. brutality 잔인성, 무도함. deprivation 상실, 박탈.
survey 조사하다. forced 강제적인. starvation 餓死(아사), 飢餓(기아).
three-quarters 4분의 3. executions 사형집행, 處刑(처형).
torture 고문. beatings 毆打(구타). Arrest and sentencing 체포와 宣告(선고).
arbitrary 任意(임의)의, 변덕스러운, 제 멋대로의, 恣意的(자의적)인.
maintain 유지하다. regime 정권. the penal system 형벌기관(제도).
extortion 착취, 강탈. market traders 시장 상인들. bribe 뇌물.
protection 防禦(방어), 보호. racket 공갈협박, 소동.
virtuous 덕이 있는, 공정한, 정숙한. the West 西歐(서구).
address 말하다. face up to 대담하데 맞서다, 直視(직시)하다.
abuse 학대, 혹사, 악용. viscerally 뱃속으로부터, 철저하게.
In the meantime 한편에서는. representative 대표.
out of the question 불가능한. leverage 영향력, 세력, 수단. prize 소중히 여기다.
officially 공식적으로. espouse 지지하다, 채택하다. orbit 궤도.
undermine ...의 토대를 침식하다. the Soviet Union 蘇聯(소련).
the state-manufactured one 국가에서 만든(조작한) 현실.
loyalty 충성. subtle 미묘한. apparatchiks 공산당 비밀정보원.
grim 냉엄한, 무서운. preoccupy ...의 마음을 빼앗다, 先取(선취)하다.
preclude가로막다, 방해하다. overdue 지연된. appraisal 평가.
horror 전율, 공포. mete out 배분하다, 할당하다.

B. 구문
- Strikingly, former inmates of . . . the long-term camps, and sometimes more.
[놀랍게도 가장 낮은 수준의 수용소에 있었던 受刑者(수형자)들은 장기 수용소의 수형자들과 똑 같은 정도의 잔인성과 박탈을 목격하였고 때로는 더 심한 것을 목격하였다고 증언한다.]
- those surveyed→those who were surveyed
- prizes the regime󰡑s stability above even denuclearisation
[정권의 안정을 비핵화보다 더 소중히 여긴다.]
- one best left in its orbit.
[자기의 궤도에 그대로 남겨두는 것이 최선이 되는 행성]